...and, frankly, it has left me feeling a little dizzy!

As some of you might remember, Norman lost his job back on the 13th of January and we are looking to move to a town about an hour away from where we live now. It has been our desire to live closer to our home congregation and we feel that the Lord is now leading us in that direction. Our house has been up for sale since last July, we have been looking for a "new" house to buy, and Norman has been putting in job applications. Meanwhile, we wait... and pray.

And now, things are beginning to happen! Last Saturday evening, we just got back from visiting my dad and were going through our emails when we noticed one from our real estate agent. She wrote that she had been trying to call us and for us to call her right away. Someone had made an offer on our house! Hallelujah! This was it! I was excited, but yet, a little afraid as I waited for Norman to find out the terms of the offer.

Finally, he hung up and said, "They lowered the price by $650.00, want us to pay their realtor fees and want our refrigerator, washer and dryer." All I could do was stare at him and mutter, "HUH?" I had never heard of such a thing! Whoever asks for a person's personal belongings when wanting to buy a house? It seemed very strange! Norman said jokingly, "Well, I guess we could raise the price to $100,000 and throw in ALL of our stuff."

We were supposed to get back to them before 5:00 on Monday, so we did a lot of thinking, talking, and praying about it. Finally, after consulting with our agent, we made our counter offer: We raised the amount back to the original asking price, agreed to pay for their realtor fees (which we had figured into the original price to start with), and agreed to leave the refrigerator (and stove, which we had intended to leave anyway). We wanted to keep the washer and dryer. It was just a couple of hours later when our agent called and said that the buyers had accepted the offer. Wow! That was easier than we thought it was going to be!

The buyers have been pre-approved, so it looks like their financing should go through okay. Our agent also said that they are "antsy" to move in. The closing date isn't until March 27th, but if we are able to find a place sooner than that, we will let them know.

We had been looking at a specific house that has been for sale for some time, but we had never seen the inside. Right away, we made an appointment to see it on Wednesday. The location was great, the house looked nice from the outside and it had a large yard. The more I thought about it, the more excited I got about it and was already redecorating a couple of the rooms that I had seen pictures of on the internet. Well, the first thing that we were confronted with when we stepped in the front door was 5 dogs, barking and growling at us. It went downhill from there. There was no dining room, unless you call going through a door off the kitchen and going down stairs, into a cold, dirty room that was crumbling around you a dining room. Yes, all of this could be fixed up, I suppose, but when their asking price was already the maximum that we could afford, that left no funds for improvement. So... it's back to the drawing board!

In reality, we have about decided that it might be best to find a place to rent for now. With Norman not working yet, a loan officer might frown on giving us a loan right now anyway. We usually have time to drive around looking at houses on Sunday afternoons, so I think we're going to have to change gears a little and look for signs that say "House for Rent" instead of "House for Sale". After all, I'm afraid that March 27th will be here before we know it.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers. "We know not what our future holds, but we know Who holds our future."

Thanks!

~Connie~